Stockton may face shortfall in water supply

Friday

Jun 6, 2014 at 12:01 AM

STOCKTON - The city's two-year-old, $220 million Delta drinking-water plant may stand mostly idle this summer, with Stockton now among thousands of landowners, irrigation districts and cities ordered to stop pumping water because of the drought.

Alex Breitler

STOCKTON - The city's two-year-old, $220 million Delta drinking-water plant may stand mostly idle this summer, with Stockton now among thousands of landowners, irrigation districts and cities ordered to stop pumping water because of the drought.

Those orders, formally known as "curtailment notices," were mailed late last week to junior water-rights holders up and down the Central Valley.

City and state officials confirmed Thursday that one of the orders targets Stockton, which in 1996 applied for a right to divert water from the San Joaquin River at Empire Tract, northwest of town.

Stockton has other sources, including federally contracted water from New Melones Lake, the Calaveras River east of Stockton, and wells scattered around the community.

Our taps aren't about to run dry.

But the lack of Delta water is unfortunate news for ratepayers, who are funding the new plant to help the city diversify its water supply and wean itself off dwindling underground sources.

Officials on Thursday did not rule out the possibility of mandatory rationing later this summer if Delta water is not available and too much groundwater is being extracted.

"This is serious stuff," said Bill Loyko, a water watchdog and chairman of the citizen Water Advisory Group. "The irony of all this is that we go from not really telling everybody they have to conserve, to now, all of a sudden, under the worst case scenario, we could face rationing."

Stockton is one of 1,634 junior water-rights holders in the San Joaquin River watershed ordered to "immediately stop diverting" unless they have no other source of water to protect human health and safety.

Right now, the city cannot fully use its Delta pumps anyway, because of seasonal restrictions to protect endangered fish.

But those restrictions end on June 15, at which point the city expected to start pumping away.

Bob Granberg, assistant director of Stockton's Municipal Utilities Department, said city attorneys are reviewing the order and drafting a response due early next week.

The city is in a unique position, Granberg said.

The state's curtailment orders are intended to make sure enough water remains in rivers and streams for downstream users who have a higher priority because their water rights are older.

But under a provision in the state water code, Stockton is allowed to pump only as much water out of the Delta as it puts back in, at the city's wastewater treatment plant several miles upstream.

In other words, whatever the city takes out of the system will be returned to the system.

"No one's being hurt by us taking it out," Granberg said.

Time will tell if the state accepts that argument.

If not, Stockton will have to determine how to make up a significant shortfall in its water supply.

The metropolitan area, including customers of privately owned California Water Service Co., has a demand of about 62,000 acre-feet per year, Granberg said. One acre-foot is enough water to serve a typical family for a year.

About 40,000 acre-feet is expected to be delivered by the Stockton East Water District, which processes Calaveras and Stanislaus water at its own plant east of the city.

That leaves Stockton about 22,000 acre-feet shy.

Stockton does buy a small amount of water from the Woodbridge Irrigation District on the Mokelumne River. That water will be processed at the Delta treatment plant, which means that whatever happens, the facility will not go entirely unused.

Pumping from wells, however, would have to make up most of the deficit. And that's not ideal.

"This (state curtailment) is forcing us to go to groundwater," he added. "But the state is also concerned about groundwater pumping. You can't have it both ways."

Under city rules, mandatory water rationing is triggered if a certain amount of water is pumped from below ground. Granberg said he believes those triggers will not be reached but acknowledged a hot summer with very high demand could change that.

Whatever happens this summer, Granberg said, the Delta water project has helped the city during the short time it has been in operation. Officials have credited that project, and more reliable deliveries of surface water from other sources, with bringing groundwater levels up 30 feet in some locations.

And yet, much has changed in the Delta since planning for the city's diversion began decades ago. The estuary is now considered to be in crisis, with water diversions coming under more intense scrutiny.

Loyko said he still considers the project to be a good investment. "I don't think one summer of serious drought changes that," he said.

But Loyko added he's long been concerned that restrictions over how often the city can pump Delta water will only grow over time.

"I think we really have to think about this from a strategic standpoint: What can we do when the next drought comes? How can we be better prepared as a region?" Loyko said. "We have to stop telling people that if they want to save water, they can. We need to put the message out that water conservation is really, really important."

Contact reporter Alex Breitler at (209) 546-8295 or abreitler@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/breitlerblog and on Twitter @alexbreitler.

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